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Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Chicken Broccoli Supreme

I saw this recipe for Chicken Broccoli Supreme on Cassie's weekly menu plan and was immediately intrigued. I love the combo of chicken and broccoli and who doesn't love a good cheese sauce every once in awhile. It seemed like a good one-dish meal.

We both enjoyed this dish but I feel like it needs a lot of tweaking before I'll make it again. My biggest complaint was the Ritz crackers. Two tubes is way too much. I should have gone with my gut and stuck with one tube. I also cut the amount of butter way down. I don't usually balk at butter but almost 2 sticks in one recipe (and a savory recipe at that) is overkill. To cut down on the butter I made a roux with butter and flour instead of the cornstarch/butter/water mixture.

SP said the addition of some noodles would have gone a long way to making this great and I have to agree, especially because my casserole was a little light on the meat. I had some bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs in the freezer so I decided to poach those, but I got barely a cup and a half of meat from the 4 thighs. I'm happy to report that SP got a different brand of cheddar cheese for me this time and it's amazing what a difference it made. I could actually taste the cheddar!

I've made a bunch of changes in the recipe below and will report back when I make this again.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add salt and egg noodles. Cook for 4 minutes, then add the broccoli florets and cook another 2 minutes. Drain and return to the pot. Add the cooked chicken and toss together.

Grease a 13×9 pan. Add pasta mixture and set aside.

In a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the flour and cook one minute, then whisk in the chicken broth, salt and pepper and milk. Whisk until the sauce starts to thicken. Turn heat down to low, and add 1- 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese. Stir until melted.

Pour the sauce over the pasta, chicken and broccoli. Top with 1- 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese.

Melt the butter, and add the poppy seeds; stir well. Crush Ritz crackers in large zip-lock bag with a rolling pin. Add crumbs to the melted butter. Sprinkle crumbs over the top of the grated cheese.

Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, or until hot and bubbly.

I made this last week as well. I was thinking about changing the cheese sauce as I was making it. I have a good recipe for cheese sauce I use for Mac and cheese and au gratin. I will do that next time to save on butter. Also, I used Italian bread crumbs (did not measure) instead of Ritz. I think it came out great with that. For the chicken I used 3 chicken breasts (skinless, boneless). I cut them into 1 inch pieces, sautéed with olive oil, garlic powder, onion powder and some Italian seasoning. Then combined with broccoli, cheese sauce, crumbs on top, bake. I made rice to go with it, not noodles. It was great.

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